"Timeline" Show Info

hi everyone...

when i landed this gig at Dunn Bros, i had a crazy idea to try something different for this show....something that i'd never tried before. as the weeks went on, it felt less & less crazy. so, here i am ready to play songs that i haven't played in 10+ years. first, a little history.

i love music. i always have & i know that i always will. i have memories of sitting in front of my sister's mirror when i was a little kid strumming my mom's acoustic guitar. of, course, i wasn't playing....merely making noise & driving my family crazy. i would put a cd or tape (yup, i'm showing my age) and act like i was in the band. i think i was 7 or 8 years old at the time.

growing up in our house, there was music everywhere. my dad would shake the walls listening to classical music records, my sisters would listen to 80's pop, rock and country & my brother was listening to a little bit of everything. so, it's been with me my whole life.

in high school, i met a guy in art class & we started a band. i sang lead vocals & played drums. my bandmates were much better than i was. it's a tough thing to sing in a band when you're 14 or 15. my voice would change mid-song. ha! in any case, we played a handful of shows and had a lot of fun. at this point, i was writing teenage lyrics...but couldn't write the songs i was hearing in my head b/c i couldn't play guitar or piano.

when i went to college, i met a guy in my english comp class. we got to talking about music & i found out that he was in a band. he told me that their drummer had an injured wrist & asked if i could fill in for one show & a few practices. i agreed...as long as he taught me guitar. the first lesson, he showed me the 8-10 basic chords & told me to keep practicing. that was all the encouragement i needed.

once i had the chords down, i started writing simple songs (still some of my favorite to write). after a year or so of practicing, i played my first solo acoustic show as the "opener" for a night of karaoke at a local bar.

this timeline show has allowed to me look back & re-learn some of those old songs & i've had a lot of fun practicing over the last few weeks. it's been interesting to go through dozens of old notebooks...reading the old lyrics. it's hard to believe that i wrote them.

for this show, i will be playing a variety of songs. some from when i started writing/playing, some from my days of singing lead & playing rhythm guitar in End Result, some newer solo songs, and it will conclude with songs that i've worked on & recorded with my bandmate in Cluthe/Lee, Chris Lee. i've also thrown in a couple of covers here & there that were written by some of my favorite songwriters. my wife will be joining me on stage for a couple of songs & it should be a lot of fun.

i'd like to thank everyone that's ever told me to keep at it. it's a trip to look back....but this show has me even more excited about looking forward. see you at the show!

Matt

Details:
Who: Matt Cluthe
When: Saturday, Jan 28 2012
Where: Dunn Bros (Addison)
Address: 3725 Belt Line Rd Addison, TX 75001
Cost: Free!

PS---I Will be bringing a few copies of our Cluthe/Lee albums ("Here We Are" & "Life Can Go") that will be available for purchase.

She/Fragile Ones

---SHE---
(Matt) This is a song that pre-dates my work with End Result & was written shortly after my oldest sister got engaged & a couple of years before I met my wife. I am the youngest of four children & at the time I was the only one that wasn't engaged/married or in a serious relationship at all. I was thinking about my sister's engagement and was trying to imagine what that felt like...to know that you want to spend your life with someone, in good times & in bad. I had been in somewhat serious relationships before, but nothing that would have led to marriage. With this in mind, I wrote this song & started playing it at some acoustic shows. When I started working with End Result, I kept it to myself for awhile because it didn't seem to "fit" our sound. I played it for the band one day at rehearsal. We had a show that weekend & had just run through the setlist during practice & started jamming. I asked if they'd like to hear it & they said yes. We played it live that weekend...and proceeded to play it at every show after that. I didn't fully understand what this song meant until I met my wife, but now I do.

I randomly asked Chris if we could play it at our show in February of last year & he was game. I love his guitar work on this song! Then, I sent him the rough recording out of the blue & this is a result of that rough recording. I'd like to dedicate this song to my amazing wife, Laurel.

(Chris) She is a song I remember Matt sending me a demo of in 2009 back when he was with End Result. It was an easy song to get hooked on. A straight up love song. It wasn’t until 2011 when we played our first show in Dallas that I’d heard it again & he had proposed adding it to the set list. We ended up playing it again at our second show in Delevan in late summer 2011 – and I think Matt had plans to do a proper recording of the song shortly after that trip. It’s truly a great song – and one I believe would be a big break for him/us if we were doing music as full time careers.



---FRAGILE ONES---
(Chris) I wrote the music for Fragile Ones back in November 2011 after a very intense dream about my Grandfather. In the dream he was singing me this lullaby as a little kid and when I woke I immediately began searching the guitar for the chords/notes. The music he was singing was loud as reality and when I found the chords I got a bit overwhelmed. I ended up calling my parents and telling them about this dream. They said when I was very little he used to sing songs to me. Totally blown away. A memory that I have no memory of – coming up in my dreams. There’s a somber tone to it – and a gentle sway that to me is very lullaby-like. I don’t often write such directly personal/inspired things like this – but it happened, so here you go!

(Matt) This song is one of the simplest songs (and most beautiful, in my opinion) that Chris has ever sent me. He was very clear from the beginning....let's keep it simple, so just add vocals. When I heard what he'd recorded, I agreed immediately. While Chris was thinking about his Grandfather when he wrote the music, I was thinking about our nephew. He's a tough little guy that was dealing with some medical issues (he's doing much better now) and my brother and sister in law were handling it like champs. The idea is that whether we're big or small, we're all fragile...and so is life.

Hello to you all in 2012!

Wherever you are - Happy New Year from Cluthe/Lee!

Where to start all ye faithful? Hmmmm... After a much needed break in December, the Cluthe/Lee engine is starting to turn over once more. 2011 was quite a year for Cluthe/Lee. Our second album - two shows and of course lots and lots of new songs. We are both thankful for all events that have come our way since 2009 and we're looking forward to continuing this collaboration into 2012 with you all!

As I type this up there are some exciting things to look forward to in the coming months. First is Matt's solo show at Dunn Brothers in Addison, Texas this month. We had originally planned it to be a Cluthe/Lee show - but forces beyond my control made it impossible for me to be there. I can assure you that an evening of Matt playing his extensive song catalog, covers, and who knows what - should not be missed! Matt is tinkering around with some very interesting/fun ideas for his show. I won't spill the beans in this blog - I'm certain he'll be in touch with show details.

We are also in the process of gathering up songs for our third LP - process is showing good strength so far. We're excited to be moving on and getting out this next batch of tunes to you all. I can tell you that it's the most aggressive/experimental set of songs to date - and I know you all will be happy with it! It's also the very first truly organic LP we will have put out to date. Meaning it's all live instrumentation - no drum loops. I've been hard at work getting into the art of drumming - and learning how to drum with music written 1000 miles away at that! It's not an easy feat you guys - but lots of fun!!

There are a number of new instrumentals I've completed in December and there up to listen to at www.reverbnation.com/presentlyfalling if you want to hear. There are a number of songs Matt has been working on as well that are going to be worked up in the next month or so. Matt and I continue to evolve as song writers and we're both very happy with where the band is at here in 2012. There were several projects we spoke of in 2011 that are still very much alive - just trying to figure out how to move forward with them. One of those is our EP "Different Colors" which is all but finished - minus artwork. We hope to have that out digitally when the time comes. You'll find some very neat alternate takes on songs you know from both our LPs - plus a few surprises. We had mentioned a possible video at some point as well - however that project is a bit further away in reality. We have posted many videos from our show in Wisconsin back in September 2011 over on YouTube that hopefully you've seen.

That's it from here - for now. Thanks for staying with us all this time! We do appreciate it - greatly!

Chris & Matt